Good, Bad & Ugly Review: The Purge – Anarchy

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 56% (Critics) / 67% (Audience)Directed By: James DeMonacoWritten By: James DeMonacoStarring: Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez and Michael K. WilliamsStudio: Universal PicturesSynopsis:The New Founders of America invite you to celebrate your annual right to Purge. The Purge: Anarchy, the sequel to summer 2013’s sleeper hit that opened to No. 1 at the box-office, sees the return of writer/director James DeMonaco to craft the next terrifying chapter of dutiful citizens preparing for their country’s yearly 12 hours of anarchy. – (Source)

The Good:
Frank Grillo is a different kind of action star but the guy is quickly becoming a favorite of mine based on his performances in THE GREY, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER and now this film. He has a great intensity to him and he pulls off the tough guy action scenes effortlessly.
I also liked how the universe of this franchise was expanded to show how The Purge night effects the “little guy” instead of the more personal bottled up feel of the first movie. I also think throwing in more of the callous class disparity was a really good touch.
It also helped that all of the primary characters were likable enough that you didn’t want to see them die which could not be said for the annoying family from the original movie.

The Bad:
There was a lot of set-up for the anti-Purge revolutionaries led by Michael K. Williams’ Carmelo yet there was never a really satisfying pay off to that set-up and it was a complete waste of the talents of such a great actor as Williams.

The Ugly:
That ending was so incredibly sappy and predictable. This movie really deserved better.

Final Verdict: Incredibly violent but also incredibly thrilling, THE PURGE: ANARCHY is a really cool expansion on a very interesting premise. It also has some good performances by the actors in peril and set things up to continue showing future Purges featuring some of these characters. The ending was a bit corny and a couple of the film’s threads seemed to unravel but as a whole this was a fun movie.